Denture Cream: One Woman's Struggle is a Lesson for Young People

Boston, MAYou may not see them as the young hockey player skates by. But they're there—in the mouth, protecting the teeth. Mouth guards. So what does a mouth guard have to do with denture cream and zinc toxicity? Everything. Because when a young person loses their teeth through a sports injury, they may be looking at dentures—and products like Super PoliGrip to keep those dentures in place.

They also run the risk of suffering the kind of problems experienced by Ellen Issacs.

Her's is a heartbreaking story recently profiled on Good Morning America (GMA). According to the ABC program it began with a tingling in her toes. After four years her balance is gone and simple tasks are not possible. She has tremors.

Ellen's neurologist concluded that denture cream was the problem. Denture creams contain zinc, and in high doses zinc can suppress levels of copper in the body, affecting the spinal cord and impacting the ability to walk and maintain balance.

On the May 5th edition of GMA Ellen Issacs revealed that she used Super PoliGrip on her dentures for a decade. She did so once a day and even slept in them overnight. Such use is considered excessive, but there appears to be little warning as to the potential danger.

According to GMA denture creams such as Super PoliGrip are rated as a Class 1 medical device and, as such are not required to have a warning label by the US Food and Drug Administration. Manufacturers, according to GMA, are also not required to put amounts of zinc on the product label.

Issacs has launched a lawsuit against the Super PoliGrip manufacturer. For its part GlaxoSmithKline stands behind its product and told GMA in a statement that Super PoliGrip is "safe and effective for daily, long-term use when used as directed."

Meanwhile, for adolescent sports enthusiasts the caution is justified. According to a 2007 meta-analysis of studies evaluating the effectiveness of mouth guards in reducing injuries, the overall injury risk was found to be 1.6, to 1.9 times greater when a mouth guard was not worn, relative to mouth guards usage during athletic activity. Another study of collegiate basketball teams found that athletes wearing custom-made mouth guards sustained significantly fewer dental injuries than those who did not (source: American Dental Association).

For young people into sports, denture cream is something they don't want to be risking.